JP5691169B2 - IC card - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an IC card, and more particularly to a reinforcing structure that improves the impact resistance of the IC card.

  IC cards are stored and used under various circumstances by an unspecified number of people. For example, it is carried around by being held in an uneven part such as a wallet or a pocket or a curved part. It is also possible to hit the IC card against other objects or drop it while the IC card is still in the case. As described above, the IC card needs to have a considerable strength against an impact when it is bent by an external force from various directions, or when an object collides or falls.

  By the way, the IC card is a card in which a semiconductor memory is incorporated inside the card, and further includes a CPU, a coprocessor and the like to enable information processing inside the card. There are two types of information reading and writing methods: contact type and non-contact type, and several methods are standardized and standardized respectively.

  The reason why the IC card needs to have impact resistance is to prevent the IC chip itself built in the card from being damaged by an external force or the portion where the IC chip and the wiring circuit such as an antenna are connected from being damaged. Because.

  The structure of the IC card is described, for example, in FIGS. As for the portion in which the IC chip is accommodated, a spotted portion corresponding to the size of the IC chip is formed on the card base, and the IC chip is accommodated in the spotted portion and laminated with another card base from both sides. . A configuration is also disclosed in which an image receiving layer in which character information / image information is written on the card base is bonded via a cushion layer. The opening that accommodates the IC chip is covered with a separate substrate from both sides, but the cushion layer alone is affected by the unevenness related to the opening and the writing performance deteriorates. A layer may be provided.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a configuration for covering the entire IC chip mounted on the inlet and the inlet on the back side of the IC chip with a buffer material as another configuration for protecting the IC chip portion. The buffer material is deformed to absorb external force and reduce external force applied to the chip.

  Still another configuration is similar to the above configuration, but there is a configuration in which reinforcing plates are respectively installed on the upper part of the IC chip mounted on the inlet and on the rear surface of the inlet where the IC chip is located. There is an effect of protecting the IC chip and reducing the unevenness of the card surface due to the installation of the IC chip (Patent Documents 3 and 4).

JP 2005-259166 A JP-A-9-183285 JP 2000-222549 A JP 2002-163624 A

  The above prior art has the following problems.

  If the cushion layer, cushioning material, or reinforcing plate is placed so that the IC chip is sandwiched, the physical strength of the IC chip itself is insufficient, causing damage to the IC chip or occurrence of poor connection at the terminal section. There is a problem that cannot be suppressed.

  In addition, when a plurality of base materials are thermocompression-bonded into a card by the thermal laminating method, if the thermal expansion coefficients between the individual base materials are different, the magnitude and direction of the stress acting on the front and back surfaces of the individual base materials are different in the cooling process. Therefore, for example, if there is a cushion layer, there is a problem that wrinkles are generated in the cushion layer, the effect is retroactive to the card surface and the appearance abnormality is caused, and the base material used for the exterior is restricted. It was. Further, when the cushioning material is used so as to cover the IC chip, there is a problem that wrinkles are generated on the front and back of the card for the same reason as described above.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an IC card configuration in which the surface of the IC card is not wrinkled at the time of thermal lamination, and at the same time the impact resistance is improved.

In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is directed to an antenna substrate having an IC chip having a thickness of about 55 μm and an area (3 mm × 3 mm) and an antenna, an inner layer sheet at least vertically and an exterior An IC card formed by laminating a sheet and a surface of the antenna substrate on which the IC chip is electrically connected to the antenna. Reinforcing plates are bonded to the chip mounting regions in the upper and lower sides through adhesive resins, respectively, and the reinforcing plate on the chip mounting surface side is covered with a buffer resin having a lower elastic modulus than the inner layer sheet and the outer sheet. The inner layer sheet above the antenna substrate is made of a 130-μm thick hot-melt PET-G film, and the inner layer sheet below the antenna substrate is attached with a 350 μm-thick hot melt. It is a PET-G film, the reinforcing plate above the antenna substrate is 110 μm thick, the reinforcing plate below the antenna substrate is 65 μm thick, and each is made of SUS material having an area of about 4.5 mm × 4.5 mm, the cushioning resins are silicone resin thickness ranging from 5μm to 300 [mu] m, the planar shape of the case of projecting the previous SL cushioning resin sites reinforcing plate is similar to the reinforcing plate, the cushioning resin sites The area of the planar shape when projected onto the reinforcing plate is an IC card characterized in that it is not more than twice the area of the reinforcing plate.

  In such a configuration, a static external force applied to the periphery of the IC chip is prevented by the reinforcing plate, and a local / impact external force is relaxed by the buffer resin.

  In the invention according to claim 2, in the inner layer sheet, the inner layer sheet on the side accommodating the IC chip is thicker than the inner layer sheet on the side not accommodating, and an opening is provided in a portion corresponding to the IC chip. The IC card according to claim 1, wherein the IC card is characterized.

  In such a configuration, an opening is provided in the inner layer sheet laminated on the antenna base, and the IC chip, the reinforcing plate, and the buffer resin protruding from the antenna base are accommodated in the opening, and at the same time, the buffer resin The configuration is such that only the extra space is filled. As a result, the generation of wrinkles is suppressed.

According to the first aspect of the present invention , a gap formed between the inner layer sheet opening and the IC chip is filled with a buffering resin.

Since the thickness of the buffer resin is in the range of 2 μm to 300 μm, the surface of the IC card becomes smoother in combination with the above configuration.

Buffering resin, when a silicone resins, the impact resistance improving effect and wrinkle effect of preventing,
The smoothness improvement effect is remarkable.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a highly smooth IC card having a shock-resistant surface and no wrinkles. As a result, it is possible to obtain an IC card that does not break the IC chip and has a long life and excellent writing properties.

It is a figure of the sectional view explaining the layer composition of the IC card concerning the present invention typically. It is a figure of the cross-sectional view which illustrates typically the layer structure of a conventional IC card. It is a figure of the top view explaining the overlap condition of resin for buffering, IC chip, and a reinforcement board.

  FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 respectively show the structure of a single IC card according to the present invention and the conventional structure which are separated for each constituent layer. An actual IC card is one in which the layer materials described above are integrated by hot pressing from above and below, but basically, an IC chip 5 or an antenna substrate 10 having an IC chip 5 and antenna wiring 7 is connected to the inlet. And the card is formed by laminating two or multi-layer sheets on both sides. FIG. 1 is a view in which an exterior sheet 3 and inner layer sheets 91 and 92 are laminated.

  The IC chip 5 is made of silicon single crystal having a thickness of about several tens of μm, and is laid on the antenna base 10 so that the external connection terminals 8 of the chip are connected to the terminals on the antenna base (see FIG. 2). . Since the IC chip 5 protrudes from the antenna substrate 10 by a thickness, the opening 11 is formed in the protective sheet on the covering side so that the IC chip 5 itself and the connection part are not hit even if external force or deformation is applied. It is formed and accommodated therein, and at the same time, the upper and lower sides are sandwiched between protective plates 61 and 62 such as SUS or aluminum. The space for accommodating the IC chip usually has a gap so that surrounding members do not contact the IC chip even if the card is deformed or the like.

  In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, this gap is buried with a buffer resin 4. The buffer resin is preferably a resin having an elastic modulus lower than that of the exterior sheet 3 and the inner layer sheets 91 and 92, and a silicone resin material, a polyurethane-based material, a rubber-based material, a material having dilatancy, or the like can be used.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described using examples.

The antenna base material 10 which is a functional core member of the IC card is obtained by electrically connecting the IC wiring 5 and the antenna wiring 7 formed on the PET base material having a thickness of 40 μm through the connection terminal 8. These are manufactured as a multi-faceted inlet. The inner layer sheets 91 and 92, the exterior sheet 3 and the like corresponding to the multi-sided layout are sequentially stacked on the multi-sided inlet and collectively formed, and finally cut into a card size. It will be described as a single IC card cut into small pieces.
In the following description, the back side of the IC card is the IC chip mounting side (the lower side in FIGS. 1 and 2).
And the opposite side of the surface (upper side in FIGS. 1 and 2) is designated.

  First, the IC chip 5 and the two reinforcing plates 61, 92 are pressed by using a die at a portion (chip mounting region) corresponding to the IC chip 5 of the upper and lower inner layer sheets 91, 92 laminated on the antenna substrate 10. Drilling to form the opening 11 for accommodating 62 is performed. The inner layer sheet 91 is a 130-μm thick hot-melt PET-G film (tensile elastic modulus: 1.50 GPa), and the other inner layer sheet 92 is a 350 μm-thick PET-G film with hot melt. Although the opening 11 is penetrating in the figure, it may not be penetrating, and depending on the case, it may be counterbored in multiple stages.

  Next, the first reinforcing plate 62 is bonded to the back of the IC chip 5 having a thickness of about 55 μm and an area (3 mm × 3 mm) mounted on the antenna substrate 10, and the second reinforcing plate 61 is shown in FIG. Thus, the IC chip 5 was protected from both sides by bonding to the corresponding surface side of the antenna substrate 10 as described above. Here, the first reinforcing plate 62 has a thickness of 65 μm, the second reinforcing plate 61 has a thickness of 110 μm, and both are made of SUS material having an area of about 4.5 mm × 4.5 mm.

  Next, a 200 μm-thick silicone double-sided tape (manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd .: TC-20SAS, tensile elastic modulus: 0.70 GPa) is temporarily placed on the second reinforcing plate 61 as the buffer resin 4, and the antenna base After collating together with the inner layer sheet using the material 10 as a core, a heat laminating process was performed.

  At this time, the buffer resin 4 was aligned so that the projected shape viewed from the card surface substantially coincided with the reinforcing plate 6 so that unnecessary unevenness was not generated on the surface of the corresponding portion. An example of a preferred arrangement is shown in FIG. In the figure, the black square is the IC chip 5. On the basis of the area of the reinforcing plate 6, the area of the buffer resin 4 is preferably 2 or less. When it was 2 or more, the unevenness around the reinforcing plate 4 became remarkable, and the printing / printing on the card surface was deteriorated.

  The thickness of the buffer resin 4 is preferably in the range of 5 μm to 300 μm. If the thickness is less than 5 μm, the stress relaxation effect is insufficient. On the other hand, if the thickness exceeds 300 μm, a substrate having a thickness of 100 μm is applied to the exterior sheet 3 to ensure smoothness. It becomes difficult to fit within a standard thickness of 760 ± 80 μm in accordance with the standard.

  Next, a polyester-based hot melt film 12 having a thickness of 30 μm and an exterior sheet 3 (stretched PET, tensile elastic modulus: 3.60 GPa) are secondarily collated, and then subjected to a secondary laminating treatment to form a base material and all sheets. Glue. The thickness of the hot melt film 12 needs to be appropriately set within the above-mentioned thickness range so that the gap is filled and no unevenness is generated after the hot melt film 12 is solidified.

  Next, a desired IC card could be manufactured by cutting into small card sizes.

(Comparative example)
The IC card provided with the buffer resin 4 and the IC card whose impact resistance should be compared were manufactured in the same process, except that two sheets of inner layer sheets (PET-G) 94 and 95 were stacked on both sides. The thickness is 240 μm (see FIG. 2). The inner layer sheets 94 and 95 to be bonded to the antenna substrate 10 are provided with openings 11 for accommodating the IC chip 5 and the reinforcing plates 61 and 62. Although the thickness of the inner layer sheet in an Example differs by front and back, the total thickness of front and back is 480 micrometers, and is the same as a comparative example. In the embodiment, the thickness of the portion where the buffering resin is accommodated is changed between the front and back sides.

(Comparative experiment)
For the impact test, using a falling body test device of JIS standard K5600-5-3, fix the card face up so that the IC chip is positioned in the center of the cradle with a hole with an inner diameter of 27 mm, A steel weight having a diameter of 20 mm and a weight of 50 g was dropped from 15 cm, and then the card was installed in the same manner with the front and back of the card reversed, and the weight was dropped. The operation of the IC chip was confirmed, and the same impact test was repeated by increasing the height by 5 cm with respect to the card whose normal operation was confirmed. The highest height at which normal operation was confirmed was recorded along with the number.

  The results are shown in Table 1. The table shows the number of IC cards damaged at the height (numbers in the upper row in the unit of cm) divided by the number of inserted cards.

  Comparing the example and the comparative example, the difference was significant when the weight was dropped on the back side where the buffer resin was installed. As the buffer material 4 provided in the opening 11, it is considered that the effect of absorbing the impact is more remarkable when the silicon resin is disposed than the hard PET, and the force applied to the IC chip is further reduced. On the other hand, the same results were obtained on the surface side, and no difference was observed. This is a natural result because it has almost the same configuration.

3, exterior sheet 4, buffer resin 5, IC chip 7, antenna wiring 8, connection portion 10, antenna substrate 11, opening 12, hot melt film (resin)
61, second reinforcing plate 62, first reinforcing plate 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, inner layer sheet

Claims (2)

An IC card obtained by laminating an inner layer sheet and an outer sheet at least vertically on a 40 μm-thick antenna base including an IC chip having an thickness of about 55 μm and an area (3 mm × 3 mm) and an antenna, Reinforcing plates are respectively attached to the chip mounting area of the chip mounting surface of the antenna base material where the IC chip is electrically connected to the antenna and the chip mounting area of the surface facing the chip mounting surface of the antenna base material via an adhesive resin. The reinforcing plate on the chip mounting surface side is covered with a cushioning resin having a lower elastic modulus than the inner layer sheet and the outer sheet, and the inner layer sheet above the antenna substrate is a hot melt having a thickness of 130 μm. The inner layer sheet below the antenna substrate is a 350-μm thick hot-melt PET-G film and is reinforced above the antenna substrate. The plate is 110 μm thick, the reinforcing plate below the antenna substrate is 65 μm thick, and each is made of SUS material having an area of about 4.5 mm × 4.5 mm. The buffer resin has a thickness in the range of 5 μm to 300 μm. a silicone resin, the planar shape of the case of projecting the previous SL cushioning resin sites reinforcing plate is similar to the reinforcing plate, the area of the planar shape of the case of projecting the said cushioning resin sites reinforcing plate, An IC card, wherein the area is less than twice the area of the reinforcing plate.   2. The inner layer sheet according to claim 1, wherein the inner layer sheet on the side containing the IC chip is thicker than the inner layer sheet on the side not containing the IC chip, and an opening is provided at a portion corresponding to the chip mounting region. IC card of description.

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